


Mail Order

by cymyguy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 1850s, Arranged Marriage, F/F, Farmer Kageyama Tobio, First Meetings, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderswap, Getting to Know Each Other, Letters, Mail Order Brides, Traveling Together, pioneer au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23976841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cymyguy/pseuds/cymyguy
Summary: Tobio walked over and picked up the paper. The column was labeled "Solicits Correspondence", and it contained a list of offers to women back east, offers of a home and a partner to support them. It was hard to believe that one could order a wife by mail, but here was proof.So there were women out there who wanted to come West, probably for the same reason Tobio had come, only they didn’t want to do it on their own. And they would really come without knowing anything but what a few letters could tell. She wondered if it was more foolishness or courage on their part. But she didn’t wonder long; it wasn’t her business why they were coming.With much less than the usual fuss about it, she might get herself a wife.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 29
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

Tobio was going to town that day because she had enough money saved for a new set of plow blades. When she had hitched the horses, she said goodbye to her dog and stepped up into the wagon seat. It was an hour drive from her claim, an hour of comforting silence before the bustle of the town swept them in. For the first half of the journey, they rolled along the path they’d worn themselves, along the stretch of trees that protected against the creek. The water bubbled faintly and birds flitted through branches. Then, Tobio’s path merged to one shared with the few other homesteaders in this hundred-mile area west of town. The path was dry, but the summer hadn’t been too dry for crops, though it was only June, so she was still waiting to see. There were no worked fields in sight along the road, and no more trees either. Golden-green prairie grass rippled in the wind, with a hail of swishing sounds.

The clerk at the depot was busy; she had to wait around while avoiding the trio of men apparently there to talk. She hadn’t been confronted about her identity since she came west, and she wasn’t afraid of someone recognizing her as a woman, but it was simpler to have them thinking she was a man, so she kept to herself as much as possible. Now she pretended to deliberate carefully on some tools. 

Before she left her parents’ house three years before, Tobio had decided to look the part for the life she was going after. She wore trousers and loose-fitting button shirts, and kept a hat over her short hair. She did the man’s and the woman’s work out on her claim, and didn’t bother anyone, so that they didn’t come bothering her.

“Plenty of advertisements, but plenty of takers too.”

Tobio’s eyes stopped focusing as she tuned in, curiosity getting the better of her.

“—I had five lovely letters from ladies, two one day and three the next. They’re ready to come if you’re ready to have them, I tell you.”

“You must have turned your homestead into a fairytale and yourself into a prince,” another man laughed.

“Nothing like that. You just put your ad in the column, like you were looking for a haymaker or a new wagon. Nothing fancy. I wrote back to the woman who seemed best, told her about the house and the oat crop, and my new team. I paid her fare for the train, and she’ll be out here in two weeks, simple as that.”

“And you’ll see that she’s lied about being the town beauty.”

“And about her cooking.”

“And her sock darning.”

The men laughed as the first tried to further defend himself. Once they had left the depot, Tobio walked over and picked up the paper they had been looking at. The column was labeled _Solicits_ _Correspondence_ , and it contained a list of offers to women back east, offers of a home and a partner to support them. It was hard to believe that one could order a wife by mail, but here was proof, and the man had sworn to it.

So there were women out there who wanted to come West, probably for the same reason Tobio had come, only they didn’t want to do it on their own. And they would really come without knowing anything but what a few letters could tell. She wondered if it was more foolishness or courage on their part. But she didn’t wonder long; it wasn’t her business why they were coming.

Tobio was almost certain she could offer more than the likes of that man, and almost any homesteader who didn’t have a ten-year head start on her. The land was signed for, the house was up, the animals were healthy. The crop had gone in early, and the almanac hadn’t called for severe storms this year, so she had no reason to worry right now. Summer would be the best time, before harvest and while the weather was good. With much less than the usual fuss about it, she might get herself a wife. 

Her greatest disadvantage would probably be that she was not a man. Some might not think her capable. But she didn’t need five letters back, she only needed one, so it was no real loss to have her search more limited than some others.

On the way home Tobio considered what she would advertise for. A woman would be her preferred company, if she must have company. Most women were more practiced at sewing than her, and she could use some better mending on her shirts. She could cook just fine, but it would save her time to have someone else do the cooking while she stayed in the fields. The house was not as clean as it could be, either. The claim could be better, she knew, but she preferred to do things on her own, and progress was slower that way. All the work would be better done if there was someone to shoulder a part of the load. In turn, Tobio would provide a home and protection, and treat the woman well. It was as good an offer as any could be, she thought.

She worked later into the night than she intended, determined as she was to write an accurate but plain account of herself.

_ A woman, age 21, tall, dark hair, blue eyes. Seeking a working woman, must cook and sew well. Homestead 2 years old, fields plowed, trees planted, crop year good. Will provide a comfortable, weatherproof house, garden, cow, team of horses. Honest, faithful, dependable; seeking the same. _

The very next day she’d gone to town, with her papers and money in an envelope, and sent it east, to the city nearest where she had grown up. Then she waited for a response.

And today, she’s gotten one.

The writing on the envelope is not that of her brother’s or mother’s, so it cannot be anything other than an answer to her advertisement. But she can’t bear to open it, until she and the horses have gone the hour home, and she has stopped feeling flushed and her stomach has untwisted itself. After putting the horses up, she goes into the house and sits down at the table to read the letter.

_ To Whom It May Concern, _

_ I am writing in response to your advertisement in the Yokohama Weekly newspaper dated 17 June 1850. My name is Shouyou Hinata. I am 22 years old this month. I have known for a while that the West is where I would like to make my life, but it was only recently that I decided to search the papers for an opportunity. I have applied to you and to one other person, for the time being. _

_ My father is a tailor. We have never lived off our own land, but you can bet that I am a good and quick sewer. My mother is a cook the town admires, and she says I have made great progress in learning from her; I may not be quite as good, yet, but I am sure I could satisfy you. I am not tall, but I am not weak. I have red hair and brown eyes. _

_ If the rest of my letter is satisfactory, I would like to know a little about what you look like. I would also like to know what your horses and your house look like, if you can spare some time to write about them. Thirdly, I would like to know how your homestead claim is getting on, and some details on how you would provide the comfortable home you mentioned. I hope this letter finds you well. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Shouyou Hinata _

The letter fills her with ten different things. She still hasn’t settled on one when she lies down to sleep after the evening’s work.

The name, _Shouyou Hinata_ , flashes through her mind persistently. A real person, with a name of her own, answered to her search. She is a small woman with red hair. Tobio can’t conceive of it. She comes close to dismissing it altogether, considering how unlikely it is that a person the likes of whom she has never seen would answer her ad. The woman is probably lying to make herself more special than she really is. But Tobio pointedly mentioned honesty in her ad, and with that the woman should know that lying would be a foolish thing to do.

The letter is simple and sensible. The woman is plain in her inquiries about what Tobio can provide, and she respects this straightforwardness. According to her own estimation, she can answer well enough to both of Tobio’s requirements. She won’t know much about a homestead, but she can learn.

There is only one thing that still bothers her, after she’s thought the whole letter over. It’s the bit about the woman responding to another advertisement. Tobio has a prickly feeling somewhere in her chest. She did take to this idea for the sake of her competitive spirit, at first, but being locked into a real competition, probably with a man, rakes up something more tense than confident in her. 

She has been given a chance to make a more complete claim of her situation, and if she can put it into words the right way, the woman will see the clear advantages Tobio is offering. The next day, after all the work and a ponderous walk around the claim, taking in everything with a keen eye, she sits down to pen her return letter.

_ To Shouyou Hinata, _

_ I was raised on a farm near Kamakura. I have held the homestead myself for 2 years and 3 months. This year I will have crops of wheat and oats, and a small corn crop. The garden is small, as I don’t have much time myself to work in it, but I have cucumbers, carrots, and radishes growing well.  _

_ The house faces west. I planted a tree line to the north last spring, and in 3 more years it will be a small shelter. There are 3 rooms and a loft. The large room is on the right. On the left in the front is the pantry and stove, and in the back is the bedroom. The inside is tar-papered; next summer, if this year’s crop is good, I will side the house. _

_ The horses are chestnut mares with white socks. They are 7 and 9 years old and have the same mother. I helped raise them from colts. The cow is 5 years old, rust red with white socks. She had a calf this spring that someone from town paid me to keep for himself. _

Having reached the final question, about her appearance, Tobio sits in irritation for several minutes. What more can she say? It was more important when she lived in her parents’ house, wore skirts and her hair in a twist of braids on top of her head. Since she left all of that behind, she hasn’t thought on the goodness in her appearance.

_ My eyes are dark blue. I was thin and tall when I was young, but I have filled out on account of my work and would not call myself thin now. My married elder brother is considered handsome, and we have some of the same features. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Tobio Kageyama _

She works away the days until she can expect a response, but yet she tries to keep from hoping. She weeds the garden, hauls water for the young trees, and reseals the roof of the small barn. Some days are covered in gray clouds, low and heavy, or high and wispy. Some days the sun makes the knee-high wheat field shimmer golden. Tobio looks over it, hands on her hips, face grim, trying to keep from hoping.

Almost every day is windy. It whooshes through the grass, and wails up in the loft. When the trees are big enough, it will make them creak and groan, but it won’t touch the house anymore.

From the front door the prairie stretches forever. She glances at each sunset as she goes inside for the night. Orange and yellow, red and purple and everything in between paints the sky. The gentle roll of small hills and valleys is bathed in orange. There is a lone tree in sight, far and left, and beyond that the very edge of the lake glimmers.

She walks with her dog to the lake, one morning before the heat of the day. She doesn’t go straight out, but south, over the creek and up the two hills that back the water. She comes to its eastern shores, where the hills and the plain around it are covered in wildflowers. They are still in perfect bloom; maybe they will last a little longer, but she’s not going to hope. There are hills of blue and hills of yellow, and red and pink in the flat places, a patchwork sewn by nature. Tobio is grateful for these things, and grateful for work to do. There are no other homesteads for at least 50 miles. That doesn’t bother her in the least. But maybe it would be nice if one other person could appreciate these things.

There is no letter at the end of the week. There is at the beginning of the next.

_ To Tobio Kageyama, _

_ Your last letter seemed good to me. I am excited for the improvements on the house, and I would love to take care of the garden, and of the animals too. I want to learn to do everything. I want to run the homestead as well as you can yourself, so that if you have to go to town, or get ill or injured, you will be able to depend on me.  _

_ If there are more questions you have for me, I am ready to answer. I know that the earliest train from here will leave on the 20th of this month, and will take me as far as Miyagi. I will come on this train, as long as you don’t object. My parents will pay my fare. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Shouyou Hinata _

It seems to be settled, then, as simply as that.

But Tobio doesn’t feel settled, and it’s because of the other man, her competition. The woman hasn’t mentioned him again, but Tobio supposes that she ought to give more encouragement while she can. She doesn’t want Miss Hinata to change her mind.

_ To Shouyou Hinata, _

_ Your letter seemed good to me, but since you invited me to, I will ask a few more questions. Do you have any experience with animals, or gardening?  _

_ As to cooking, it may be different for you here. I do not get to town more than once every one or two weeks, and especially in winter we may not have sugar, white flour, salt, or other things you are used to having on hand. I don’t have eggs often, and the milk supply doesn’t last all year. You should be prepared, but you will never be in need while I am alive. _

_ I will be in Miyagi to pick you up with the wagon. I have money for a gift for you, if you would like something from the town. If you are in need of new clothes, I expect it would be enough for material for 2 dresses. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Tobio Kageyama _

__

_ To Tobio Kageyama, _

_ I am happy to hear you have a brother, though I suppose you do not live very near each other. I have a younger brother, and people say we look alike too. You are very kind to think of getting me a gift, but I am not in need of anything. My mother and I sewed a new dress that I will wear when I marry. It is a pale green muslin with white trimming. It is not something I would wear for everyday, but I can change out the skirt and then it will be good as a Sunday dress. _

_ I have helped in neighbors’ gardens before, but I have very little experience with any kind of animal. We have been settled here since I was young and have not had our own team of horses since we came, but I am eager to learn everything. As to the cooking, I think that I will enjoy the challenges of a homestead, and you will not be ill-fed while I am alive. _

_ I will arrive at the train station in Miyagi at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on 25 July 1850. From that moment I will be in your care. I expect both of us to give our best to each other. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Shouyou Hinata _


	2. Chapter 2

Tobio spends as much of four days as she can cleaning the house. She scrubs the floor, washes the windows, and blacks the stove. She empties the straw from the mattress, dries and stuffs it fresh. She wipes and polishes every shelf and drawer in the pantry. She oils the wagon spokes before she leaves. The city of Miyagi is a journey of three days.

She gets there at noon, early enough that she has to unhitch the horses before tying them. Then she waits next to the tracks on the southern outskirts of town.

She is alone for a while, feeling slightly tormented by the open prairie flowing out ahead of her. The city noises are behind her, horses and shouting and door slamming. She can’t decide if she wants the time to slow down or speed up, and because of her uncertainty two hours fly by. At about 2 o’clock the makeshift wooden platform starts to collect a few more waiters, and the workers start to bustle. 

At 3 she hears a distant whistle. It startles her to her feet. A sudden rush of nerves comes over her, and she looks down to check herself. She wore the nicest things she has, a light blue shirt that has faded a little past its shade, and dark brown trousers with one tiny patch at the back of the knee. She has the nicer of her two hats, the one with less denting to the crown; the brown circle rim is worn soft, but dusted clean. She takes it off and holds it in front of her when the train coasts around the bend, ten minutes late.

Tobio swallows through the dryness of her throat. She steps off the platform, away from the people starting to chatter excitedly, and waits there on the dirt path.

Only a few cars pass by before the train stops completely. She watches the first passengers come out, two men who head straight for town. The next is a red-haired woman who hops off the step and spins around to curtsey to someone still inside the car. The smile on her face is like no smile Tobio has seen before. The woman turns, swinging her bag wildly, and starts to search with her eagerly bright eyes. Tobio is the first person there for her to see. She catches her eye, and lifts her hat to her.

Another smile jumps onto the lady’s face. She steps right toward Tobio. But in a few moments, the half fallen smile freezes on her face, and her steps falter. She is nearly creeping by the time she comes to stand in front of her, her chin hardly above Tobio’s chest. Tobio goes on the defense as she takes in the lady’s wide eyes and the shaky breath that goes through her chest.

“You—”

The woman struggles to find her voice. The cold claws of dread slash through Tobio. Something is wrong. Miss Hinata looks as if she hasn’t found what she was supposed to find.

“Are you—Tobio Kageyama?”

Slowly Tobio frowns. She nods.

The lady draws a great, big breath.

“You are a woman!”

The indignation seems to ring through Tobio’s body. She is gruff when she replies.

“Why are you surprised?”

“You—You! What have you done?”

The woman takes several steps back, but for her angry tone, she still looks shocked.

“You—You mean to call me out here with lies?” she says. “How dare you! Shame on you!”

“I haven’t lied.”

Tobio is angry without knowing what the words mean or exactly who is saying them to her. Has a devil answered her advertisement?

“Well you couldn’t expect me to assume you were _not_ a man, so to keep it from me was nothing but deceitful! That’s something I won’t stand for!”

Small as she is, the woman is looking more and more like a wild animal about to lunge at Tobio.

“I haven’t—”

“You called yourself honest! And the minute I get here—”

“I haven’t deceived anyone!”

The woman’s eyes spit at her.

“I told the whole truth,” Tobio growls. “I never deceived you. I wrote in my advertisement that I was a woman. Did you forget?”

“No, I did not forget! You didn’t write any such thing in your advertisement.”

With that, the lady sets down her bag and opens it, taking an envelope from the top. She opens the envelope and stalks forward to thrust a clipping at Tobio. Tobio takes it.

_ Solicits Correspondence _

_ Seeking a Woman. Must cook & sew. _

_ Homestead, comfortable house. Age  _

_ 21 & Honest. _

_ Write Office for Address _

“Is that—not your advertisement?”

Tobio looks back at her.

“Oh my. It’s not yours at all, is it. Did they give me the wrong address? I’m sorry, there must be some mistake.”

“It is my advertisement,” Tobio says. “My advertisement, butchered. This is not what I paid to have them write.”

She is boiling. She pinches between her brows, eyes shut tight for a moment. The newspaper cut out half her words, words she paid for, and left the bare, pathetic bones of a wishful homesteader. They even failed to mention she was a woman.

“You ought to have sent the clipping with your first letter,” Tobio says to the woman. “I didn’t know it looked like this.”

“And how was I to know you didn’t know? _You_ should have mentioned it in one of your own letters! You ought to have written more to make sure I understood you!”

“I answered everything you asked!”

Tobio does not want to believe her first conversation with this woman is so loud and so furious. She is exactly what she said she was, but also much more. Tobio doesn’t want to continue arguing, but the lady shows no sign of backing down, and Tobio has a bad habit of rising to meet the anger she’s faced with.

“Here you are, a woman, but you are dressed like a man.”

“I do a man’s work.”

“Do you pretend? Do you deceive everyone?”

“No. If someone cared to ask, I’d tell the truth.”

“Then what am I? Am I a part of a charade? Do you want me around to make sure they don’t ask?”

“No.”

“Then tell me what business you have bringing me all the way here! What do you mean to do with me?” she demands.

Tobio breathes through her nose, glaring from under her hat brim.

“Are you Shouyou Hinata?”

Her eyes flare.

“Yes, I am Shouyou Hinata.”

Tobio purses her lips, looking the woman over one more time.

“I haven’t lied to you. This paper has.”

She hands it back. The lady snatches it, crumpling it in her fist at her side.

“Do you really have a homestead?” she says. “With horses, and a garden, and oats?”

“Yes.”

“And you wrote honestly as a woman who wanted a wife?”

“Yes.” Tobio feels warmth in her cheeks.

“Well even if I did believe you,” she says, “Which there is no proof to help me do…”

She lifts her arm to brush the first tears from the corner of her eye.

“I can’t help that I feel hurt. I expected to be happy to meet you. And you to be glad to meet me.”

Tobio should say that she is glad to meet her, but she can’t. Shouyou Hinata dries more tears with the sleeve of her orange flowered dress.

“I never intended to lie about anything,” Tobio says.

“But—But I feel lied to!”

“I didn’t lie! I’ll show you what I wrote and intended to have printed.”

“Let me see it then.” She’s stopped crying. “The advertisement you wrote.”

“It’s at the house,” Tobio mumbles, embarrassed that she didn’t think the thing through. “My house, on my claim.”

“Do you have a letter of mine with you? How do I know you really are the one I wrote to?”

“I have all the letters.”

She did think to bring those. She produces them from her pocket and hands them back to the sender. Miss Hinata flips through each one. She nods to herself, then to Tobio.

“You are—Miss Kageyama.”

“Call me Tobio.”

“And you may call me Shouyou.”

Then she moves her eyes away, sucking in her cheek and putting her hands behind her back.

“I’m sorry for my temper,” she says. “I was—Well—Will you forgive me for it?”

Tobio nods readily.

Shouyou takes a deep breath.

“I’d like to go to your claim,” she says, “To see your advertisement. If you did lie to me, I won’t stay. I don’t intend to marry a person who would do that.”

“I didn’t lie. And I will prove it to you. Do you have a trunk?”

“Oh, yes. It’s not too heavy.”

Tobio leads the way to the luggage car.

“That one,” says Shouyou.

Tobio picks it up and heads to the high roof that shelters the wagons. She puts the trunk in her wagon box, then goes out to the hitching posts to get the horses.

“May I watch you hitch them up?” the lady says, following her. “To learn.”

Tobio only nods and goes about her business, willing the color to stay out of her cheeks as she is observed. She doesn’t speak, and doesn’t even want to clear her throat and bring attention to herself. When she’s finished, she steps up to the seat, with no thought of helping the lady in until she’s already sat down. Miss Hinata doesn’t seem to mind, grabbing onto the board with a small hand and popping her plump figure up to the seat. Her chest is about twice the size of Tobio’s, she estimates, and her dress fits perfectly to each of the two rolls on her side. She sits next to Tobio and pulls a brown bonnet over her short hair, tying it under her little round chin.

Tobio stops sneaking looks at her now that they are side by side. They move away from the shed, toward the opposite end of town and out onto the road.

“Does everyone around here really look at you and believe you’re a man?” Shouyou says.

Still flustering about their proximity, Tobio doesn’t answer.

“I knew it right away. I have never seen a man as beautiful as you.”

Tobio looks sharply at her.

“How’s that?”

“Well, your eyelashes, and the height of your cheekbones, and something about the shape of your lips, and how they—”

Shouyou cuts off. She lets out a huff and pouts her cheeks.

“I have never seen a man who looked much like you, anyway.”

Nothing about Tobio needs to be beautiful. She works with crops and horses, and part of the reason the work appealed to her was no rules about the keeping up of appearances. But apparently this doesn’t mean she is completely unaffected by such a compliment. She swallows down the bubbling inside.

“My brother.”

Shouyou looks at her.

“He would be the man who looks like me,” Tobio says.

“Oh, of course, your brother!”

Tobio’s brow twitches at the change in tone.

“You said that he was married. How is his family?”

“Just fine, in the last letter he wrote.” Tobio whistles at the horses.

“He has a wife? Do they have children?”

“One daughter.”

Shouyou claps her hands, grabbing the attention Tobio was determinedly not giving. Her smile flashes in the sun.

“How old is she?”

“Almost three.”

“Oh, what a little darling.”

Then she goes suddenly quiet. She clears her throat a tiny bit.

“I don’t mean to pry too much.”

Tobio gives no answer.

They go on, and on. Shouyou looks around almost constantly.

“It is very flat,” she observes once. Then they are silent again.

Tobio is at a loss for what to do. The lady is not very well disposed toward her, and Tobio struggles with conversation as it is. Dread overtakes her suddenly at the thought of a silent drive; she is used to silence, but this is the most peaceless kind imaginable. And if the situation she found herself with at home were no better, that would be horrible. But it might be very likely, given the kind of person she knows herself to be. She flinches on the reins when the silence is broken.

“You said you helped raise these horses,” says Shouyou. “Is that what your family did?”

She nods. Then she forces herself to speak.

“My grandfather was always good with horses. He broke and sold about two dozen teams.”

“And you liked to help? Did your brother too?”

“I liked it more than him.”

“Do you plan to do things the way your family did?”

“Once the claim is more of a home,” she says.

“A wife will certainly help with that.”

Tobio looks at her, but Shouyou is gazing at the prairie again.

At 5 o’clock Tobio reaches under the wagon cover and grabs the pail she packed with cold dinner. Shouyou thanks her politely and eats her share without any shyness.

“How far is it, from Miyagi?” she asks.

“We’ll be there the day after tomorrow, in the afternoon.”

“That long?” Her loud voice pierces the breeze.

She sucks her cheeks in, sheepish.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to ask, before. I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“I forgot to mention it,” Tobio says. “Maybe you wouldn’t have agreed to come.”

“I would have, I swear it.” She smiles a little, before she looks away again.

Tobio decides she ought to tell her the whole of it.

“We’ll stop before dark. Rest the horses overnight. You’ll sleep in the box, I’ve got a bed made up. I’ll make mine on the seat here.”

“Oh.” She nods. “And the horses will be safe, won’t they? There are more wolves and cougars out here, aren’t there?”

“I’ve got the gun in back.”

“Are you a good shot?”

“A great one.”

When there’s no answer, Tobio glances at her. Shouyou is grinning, one eyebrow cocked high.

“Is that so.”

Tobio holds her smile back, only nodding.

She thought they would get on fine now, but more silence is all that comes after this bit of chat.

They stop for the night. Tobio pickets the horses. She waves Shouyou into the wagon, then pulls the front drawstring tight so the cover cinches down, to only the smallest hole. She goes around the back to do the same there, so that Miss Hinata can have her privacy as she gets ready for bed. But before she cinches the back, she pauses at the way the woman drops her eyes.

“You don’t say much.” Tobio looks steadily at her. “I guess I had the feeling you would.”

Shouyou’s eyes narrow.

“What gave you that feeling?”

Tobio shrugs.

“Well,” she says, “I’m doing a lot of thinking. I haven’t been in the mood to say much.”

Tobio’s voice drops in her effort to keep it even.

“Why’s that?”

Shouyou meets her eyes. The lantern in the corner of the box makes her brown irises glow. And shoot, is she ever pretty.

“Because,” she says, “You’re a woman. I’m seeing things differently than I thought I’d see them. I had the idea in my head I would have children someday.”

Something cold and hard sinks into Tobio’s chest.

“And I had the idea I would be standing next to a man when I got married. Now I’m trying out new ideas.”

Tobio looks down at her boots, feeling horribly out of place, out of stride. She says the only thing she can think to say.

“We can turn around tomorrow and go back.”

“No,” Shouyou says quickly. “You came for me, came all that way. You deserve a fair chance, if you are everything you said you were.”

Tobio isn’t set at ease. The leaden chill has settled into her stomach, probably for the night.

“Well I’ve made the offer, and it’ll stand,” she says. “If you want to go back, say the word.”

“Alright. I’ll do some more thinking.”

Tobio doesn’t look at her as she takes the gun from its hooks inside the wagon. She tightens the canvas and ties it shut, then goes around to the front and lays out her pillow and blankets. She lays the gun on the floor in front of the seat and gets to sleep.

As soon as Tobio has woken and slid from the wagon to the ground, Miss Hinata’s head comes popping through the hole in the cover. She wears a wide smile.

“Good morning!”

Tobio nods.

She gives Shouyou a few minutes to dress, then goes around to loosen the canvas. Shouyou climbs out, and joins Tobio up on the seat for their quick breakfast.

“I’m sorry I have nothing to share with you.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Tobio says to her own meal.

When she gets down from the seat she is followed.

“Are you going to hitch the horses?”

She frowns. “We can’t move if I don’t.”

Shouyou frowns at her, and Tobio turns back to her task. When she’s gotten the first hitched, and stood the second in place, her passenger says:

“May I try?”

Tobio pauses with her back turned. She purses her lips, not much in the mood for giving a lesson. But she steps away and motions the woman forward. Shouyou moves to the horse’s side, and a smile flits across her face as she brushes a hand down its neck. Then she takes up the ends of the harness in her small hands and starts to fasten them.

Tobio almost smiles when the woman stops working, checking over the horse hesitantly, before stepping back. She looks up at Tobio with a little smile, her chest out and chin high, almost as if she expected praise. Tobio steps past her to redo the fastenings and clip on the rein she had neglected. Shouyou is pouting her big cheeks again.

“I’ll learn,” she says, seemingly to herself.

Today is even windier than yesterday. It beats at Shouyou’s bonnet, making a soft flapping noise that every once in a while brings the horses’ ears swiveling around. Tobio pulls her hat down more snugly. She thinks Shouyou can see less of her this way, anyway.

If Tobio had an expectation about this morning, it would be at least as quiet, if not more, than the evening before. But from the start it is different.

“What are the horses’ names?” Miss Hinata says. “They do have names, don’t they?”

“Miku and Aiko.”

“Those are nice names, did you choose them?”

She nods.

“Does your cow have a name?”

“Jichinzu.”

Shouyou giggles. “You chose that one too?”

“I did.” The tease in Shouyou’s tone doesn’t sit well with her.

“Are you hoping to have chickens someday?”

“I will have them.”

“But you’ll need someone to help with all those animals.”

Tobio doesn’t answer.

“How long did you go to school?” Shouyou says then.

“Graduated.”

“Oh. I thought you might have left early, like the boys do.”

Silence.

“I graduated too. My parents would have loved to send me to college, though it would’ve been hard to get the money together, but I hated studying.” She grins. “I bet you did too.”

Tobio did, but she doesn’t say so.

“So,” Shouyou says, and Tobio’s eye catches on a little smile with an edge. “Did you have many beaus back home?”

Tobio doesn’t answer.

“Anyone who took you driving? Or, were you doing the driving? With all those horses of yours.”

She doesn’t answer.

“Maybe you wouldn’t have come out here yourself, if you did. I’m sorry, it was a rude question.”

“Oh, the clouds are so white and wispy today,” she declares after a minute. “Like icing on a wedding cake! Weddings aren’t done in the traditional way out here, though. I don’t have a real wedding dress, or any guests to bring, and I don’t suppose we’d need a cake. But I could still make one. I helped my mother once. Would you rather have cake or pie?”

“Pie.”

“What kind?”

Tobio thinks of her grandfather’s apple pie. She doesn’t have an apple tree, and Shouyou wouldn’t make it like her grandfather’s anyhow.

“Rhubarb.”

“That’s your favorite?”

“No.”

“Then what is?”

“Apple.”

“Then wouldn’t you rather have that?”

“No.”

When she glances at her, Shouyou is scowling. Then she bursts out laughing. Tobio glowers to herself, even though the sound is bright and soft, and makes her round face get even rounder.

“I make very pretty rhubarb pie, and apple too, though there probably aren’t many apples out here, are there? But I make good vinegar pie, and donuts, and cobbler. I do know that I won’t be making much of those things at first. But can you guess what my mother gave me before I left home?”

How in the world would Tobio guess?

“She gave me her sourdough starter. She’s had it going for years, and she let me have it! As long as it’s made the trip, and I take good care of it, we’ll have the best biscuits this side of the country!”

Tobio assumes she is smiling, but doesn’t look at her. The way Miss Hinata talks, anticipating the future in such a sure way, is starting to set her teeth on edge. The future probably is certain for Tobio’s passenger, who will find her place out here eventually, since she is pretty and can cook. She doesn’t need to be concerned if one opportunity comes to nothing. But Tobio does.

“What else do you like to eat?” She waits. “I make good meat pies too.”

Tobio nods, which is apparently enough encouragement.

“And meat gravy? And ham with baked beans? That’s my brother’s favorite. Oh, how about roasted duck? Are there ducks?”

“Ducks and geese.”

She gasps, beaming at Tobio. “And you can shoot them! And I can cook them. That’s perfect.”

Perfect has never seemed less likely. Then Tobio hears a sigh.

“You asked why I wouldn’t talk,” Shouyou says, “But you don’t care to answer me when I do.”

“I have answered.”

“In two or three words. Is that all I deserve?”

Tobio clenches her jaw.

“Shouldn’t we get to know one another?”

She turns and looks the lady straight in the face.

“You intended to have a man. You said it yourself. So I just don’t see the point in going any farther. What you want is probably in that other advertisement you answered.”

“That is a rude thing to say, after I told you I would give you a fair chance,” says Shouyou, “Don’t you think?”

“I’d rather not waste my time.” Tobio adjusts her hat. “The fact is you don’t decide you could be a woman’s partner instead of a man’s. Everyone’s either that way or they’re not. You don’t need to think up different feelings than you’ve always had on my account.” 

She rushes to finish.

“Besides, you paid your own way here, you don’t owe me anything.”

“I’m not interested in what I don’t owe you,” says Miss Hinata. “And I don’t believe I said anything about what I am or what I’m not. You know what I came out here intending to do, and it was not to waste anyone’s time, so you’ll just have to have some faith in me.”

“Then tell me honestly,” Tobio says. “You don’t object to my being a woman?”

“No, I don’t. I admire you as a woman. I’m jealous of you in more ways than one.”

“Would you have answered my advertisement at all if it was printed as it ought to have been?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “That is my honest answer. I didn’t see it as it ought to have been.”

Tobio is hardly more at ease, but she can’t think of anything else to say for a moment.

“And the man that I answered to,” Shouyou says, “Wasn’t a good match. After his second letter, I told him that I was no longer interested. Then I wrote only to you.”

She looks at Tobio, head high.

“I never wanted to be a wife a man was proud to be seen with. I want to be of use. I want to work hard to have a good life. I know I would not have to worry about that with you, since you are so much prettier.”

She smiles broadly, and Tobio is gripped by the urge to drop the reins in Shouyou’s hand and run off somewhere alone. She might not say another word to her. At least not while they are side by side.

“You raised Miku and Aiko,” says Shouyou. “How did you do it? What goes into raising horses?”

Tobio does try to hold onto her resolve, for a moment that seems long but probably isn’t. Raising horses is something she can talk about under any circumstance. And she does talk. Miss Hinata listens to her, and laughs, in odd places. She asks questions and even teases her, nettling under Tobio’s skin with the little curl of her lip and the twinkle in her eye. But she never pushes Tobio to give a sharp bite back, only a sharp nibble every so often.

There are still spells of quiet, but they are welcome and comfortable, giving Tobio time to soak in the beautiful emptiness around them, and to allow herself a wonder or two about what her passenger thinks of the prairie. 

Tobio has just had the idea of stopping for the night when Shouyou talks again.

“Has anyone else answered your advertisement?” Her archness is in her tone.

“You think you have a right to know?”

“Well, I was honest about how many I’d answered. You don’t mind being honest too, do you?”

Tobio turns, not surprised to find a challenge in her eyes, but maybe surprised by its intensity.

“No one else,” Tobio says, “That I know of.”

She waits, but Shouyou doesn’t say more, except a hearty goodnight as Tobio is cinching down the wagon cover.


	3. Chapter 3

The third morning is quieter. They will arrive by early afternoon, Tobio informs Miss Hinata. The breakfast portions are a bit small today, the last of what she brought along. Shouyou doesn’t look bothered, and says thank you just the same. This reminds Tobio of the gift she had offered to her; the proper thing would have been to mention it again while they were in the city, but it had slipped her mind then. Shouyou had said that she didn’t want any gift, and she doesn’t seem like the kind to consider these things important, by Tobio’s judgement, but Tobio thinks she still ought to renew the offer when they’ve gotten to town.

Her passenger does make some conversation, about the closest town and the people who live in it, though Tobio can’t give very satisfying answers. During their silences, Tobio eyes her, trying to make out some of her feelings about the land. But she’s never been good at reading into things like that.

Once she glances over to find Shouyou shaking her head.

“What?”

“I really do envy you,” she says. “I know I shouldn’t. But I do, isn’t it better to admit that? Even your name is pretty. Even the way you say it. _Tobio_ ,” she imitates.

Tobio scowls.

Shouyou laughs. “ _Tobio_ ,” she tries again, through a grin.

“I don’t talk that way.”

“I heard you before! Say it again.”

She presses her lips tightly. Shouyou bounces on the seat to jostle her and demands she speak, but Tobio ignores her; her insides are jumping around again. She scolds them. One word shouldn’t set off her nerves this way.

Pretty, she said.

Thankfully they hardly speak again, until the wagon climbs a low rise and the town comes into view. Tobio gets slightly apprehensive as they approach. It’s more than enough town for her, but a main street lined with shops and a smattering of houses around it might be something of a letdown for someone fresh from the east.

“It’s so small,” Shouyou says first. “It looks like a nice town.”

“I’ll need to stop,” Tobio says. “For sugar and eggs. They’re decent shops, here. If you changed your mind about a gift.”

Shouyou looks at her.

“Oh no, I haven’t. I brought everything I’ll need for now.” She smiles sweet and pure, then looks at her lap. “But thank you.”

Tobio burns with intense embarrassment in those minutes before they get into town. She stops the horses on the main street. As she gets down she glances across the road at the depot, where all this had started. She tries to push it from her mind before she goes into the general store. But Shouyou gets out of the wagon and comes up to her side.

“I’d like to meet some people,” she says, “And see about the store.”

Tobio leads her inside without a word.

Touching her hat to the shopkeeper’s greeting, she goes straight to the back, weighing out a good measure of white sugar and some tea. When she turns for the counter to ask about eggs, she realizes she’s lost her companion. Shouyou is at the front of the store, examining the racks of fabric. Maybe she’ll pick something out after all. When she notices that Tobio and the shopkeeper are looking at her, she smiles and bustles over.

“Hello.”

“Hello ma’am.” The shopkeeper smiles, then glances at Tobio. “Is this Mrs. Kageyama?”

Tobio is struck dumb.

“Not yet,” she hears Shouyou say. “I’m Shouyou Hinata. I just came on the train, from the east.”

“Well then welcome to town,” says the shopkeeper. “I’m Yusuke Takinoue.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“We’re glad to have you, miss. Were you looking for some material?”

“No thank you, not today. But you seem to have a good selection. I like the patterns.”

“We don’t have everything they have in the east, but I do think we have a good selection. Come in whenever you need.”

She nods, smiling wide, then looks to Tobio, who clears her throat.

“Any eggs?”

“Eight left from today.”

“I’ll take those.”

Mr. Takinoue wraps up her purchases.

“Thank you for your business, sir.”

She nods and leads the way out. They head out of town to the south.

A giggle from her passenger gets Tobio’s attention.

“Am I supposed to call you sir?”

She’s grinning. Tobio’s temple pulses.

“I don’t care what you call me.”

When she glances again, Shouyou scowls.

“I like Mr. Takinoue, he seems kind and honest.”

“He’s not a bachelor.”

“That is not what I meant! And you should know it.”

Tobio shrugs. Shouyou huffs and crosses her arms.

“I have to get my cow from a homesteader, couple miles this way. From there it’ll be another hour west,” Tobio says.

“Oh, were they taking care of her for you?”

She nods.

“He’s a bachelor,” Tobio decides to add.

“Does he have a nice homestead?”

Tobio doesn’t think that much of the place.

“You can see for yourself.”

“Do you want to leave me there?” Shouyou says.

Tobio looks at her.

“You make it sound like you do. Are you going to take the cow and leave me behind?” Her eyes are hard. “I haven’t come all this way to go to just any bachelor. I knew that I could trust you, because of your letters. There isn’t anyone else in a thousand miles that I know I can trust. You should think about that before you say things about my freedom.”

She holds Tobio’s gaze.

“If I don’t want to stay here, or if you don’t want me to, I have to rely on you to take me back, because I don’t have much money, and I don’t know who to trust. I don’t feel very free out here, though I hope I will soon. And if you’re still thinking that I need a man to be happy, I already told you what I thought of that. I meant what I said, and you should believe me.”

A horrible cold pause follows this. Can Tobio help it if she struggles to believe something? And she wants to believe it, she truly does. Isn’t it a lot to ask for Tobio to be assured of her place, in an arrangement like this? But then, that was a necessary part of the arrangement all along, and Tobio would have known when she set out to initiate it. Shouyou is right about having only her to rely on, and she’s doing it on exactly the same bits of proof, a few plain letters and the couple of days they have known each other. If that’s what she’s giving on her side, Tobio has to give the same; it’s the only way she can see to make things work.

“I won’t leave you and take the cow,” she says, firmly. “And if I had to choose, I’d give up the cow.”

“Oh,” Shouyou says softly. Her lips pout a little.

“I wouldn’t make you give up a cow. I’m not here to make trouble for you, and although I don’t know exactly what a cow is worth, I know it’s worth a lot.”

Tobio snorts, and quickly hides her expression against her shoulder. When she turns, Shouyou scowls at her.

“Don’t just laugh! Tell me what a cow is worth so I know!”

Tobio finds herself explaining milk production and breeding, and the offset of feeding the animal, until they get to the homestead and she can tie her cow to the back of her own wagon.

“Jichinzu.” Shouyou leans out of the seat to see the cow, with a big smile.

As Tobio gets back in, she sees that the homesteader is looking at her passenger. Shouyou waves to him.

“I’m Shouyou Hinata, I came from the east.”

The man touches his hat, mouth open but no sound coming out.

“Thank you,” Tobio says a second time, and starts the horses.

He is just out of sight when they hear:

“Well I’ll be damned.”

Shouyou gives her a quizzical look. Tobio doesn’t respond.

“And now we’re going home? Your home.”

“Another hour.”

She nods wildly, another smile plastered to her face.

There is no talking during this hour, and neither is it the most comfortable silence there’s been between them. Shouyou is gawking around at everything; she leans nearly into Tobio’s lap in her attempt to see the creek that murmurs just behind the trees. She jitters on the seat. Several times she turns toward Tobio with her mouth open, only to close it tight and turn away just as quickly.

“Here,” Tobio says, after a silent sigh.

She barely glances, but Shouyou’s smile lights up her field of vision anyway.

“Here it is!”

As they approach, Tobio sees the dog come around the south side of the house.

“Is that a dog? Do you have a dog? It is a dog!”

Shouyou leaps off the seat and hits the ground running. Tobio clucks her tongue.

“She doesn’t like strangers.”

The dog is barking at them. Shouyou stops ahead of the wagon. The dog barks one more time, then runs toward her. Shouyou drops onto her knees and the dog, _Tobio’s_ dog, skips right into her lap, whimpering excitedly, tail beating side to side.

“She seems to like me,” Shouyou calls as Tobio drives past them.

She pulls the wagon past the front of the house to the small barn. Shouyou comes around the house with the dog following her. She is looking at the house, but when she sees Tobio she hurries over. Tobio pretends she doesn’t notice the brightness in her eyes.

“Have to put the horses up first.”

“Show me,” Shouyou says.

Tobio takes the cow to her stall first, checking her over. Then she takes each of the horses.

“They’ll need to be brushed down. Should take half an hour.”

“I’ll help, show me how.”

“You just watch for now.”

She huffs, but doesn’t argue.

Tobio works a little slowly, on pretense of being thorough after their long trip, but maybe she is feeling some anxiety.

“I’ll show you around the place,” she says finally.

She leads her away from the barn, along the tree shelter, then out to the fields, first the wheat, then the corn, and across from that the oats. It hasn’t suffered any weather damage while she’s been away. The dog trots at their side as they walk along the claim line to the other corner land post. There’s pasture and room for more fields. It’s near evening when she takes Shouyou around the back of the house to the garden. She hasn’t asked many questions, and Tobio hasn’t found much talk necessary.

“I’d like to put a shed back here,” she says, “To store the tools and the produce.”

“That will be nice.”

Then Shouyou turns back toward the house. It’s all that’s left to see. She starts toward it.

“This is the house you built? By yourself?”

Something swells inside Tobio. There’s anxiety for Shouyou to approve, but confidence in her abilities. Above all of it, she feels happy that she made this nice home, and that she has someone to show it to. At the front, Shouyou slips off her shoes and steps through the doorway. Tobio waits a few moments before following her in.

Shouyou looks around the big room, and up at the roof, and down at the floor. It doesn’t have wallpaper like the houses back east, but Tobio would bet her cow the walls are free of cracks. The floor is sturdy and the boards are even. There are three windows with glass, something she knows many claim houses don’t have. One faces west, to the right of the door, and one faces south, toward the wagon trail.

“One to see the sunsets from, and one to see visitors from,” Shouyou says, as if she knew Tobio were thinking about the windows.

Then she paces the length of the room, passing the rocking chair and small work table in the back corner.

“It could certainly use some decoration,” she says, with an amused little smile at the place. “Like a rug there at the foot of the chair. I brought one with me.”

Tobio doesn’t argue. Something in the smile makes her hold her tongue.

Shouyou steps toward the table, between the doorways to the pantry and bedroom. It’s a darker wood than the house; Tobio hauled it with her all the way from her parents’ farm, to saw and polish into a good table. Shouyou examines the cook stove against the front wall, then looks at the table.

“A vase here,” she says softly, touching the tabletop.

“That’s the pantry.” Tobio nods her toward it.

Shouyou pulls the bonnet off her head and lets it hang at her neck. She steps into the pantry. Tobio’s first thought is that some of the shelves would be too high for Shouyou. She’d need to make a stool. Her second is a vague vision of coming into the house to see Shouyou at work in the pantry, and it brings a strong and sudden ache in her chest. Shouyou is hardly smiling, but Tobio can tell she likes the house, and that makes her even more happy than she was outside. She looks away until Shouyou comes out of the pantry.

“Bedroom.” She waves vaguely toward the other doorway, then thinks to say: “I can fit a door for the frame.”

Shouyou goes into the room. Tobio waits, not willing to admit to a little anxiety. Shouyou pops back out, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

“A window in the bedroom too?” She smiles as she goes back in. “It’s so bright!”

She comes out practically glowing herself. Tobio points her to the loft ladder against the back wall. While she is up at the top looking, Tobio goes into the bedroom, to her trunk, and takes out the paper she drafted her ad on. She goes out and sets it on the table. When Shouyou comes down, she points it out to her.

“There’s your advertisement.”

She walks away toward the door while Shouyou picks it up to read. Though she tries not to, she glances at her once. Her smile reminds Tobio instantly of all the blotting and scribbles on the page, and she pulls her head away, feeling her face and neck heat up.

When Shouyou moves behind her, Tobio turns to look again. The woman has folded the paper and set it back down. Her hands are clasped together in front of her, and her eyes look more golden than brown. Her cheeks are high and tight with her smile.

“It is a very good house,” she says. She doesn’t have to speak loudly, the way her face projects her feelings across the room. “I don’t think I would mind living in it.”

Then, the sunniest shade of pink colors her cheeks, and she looks at her socks.

Tobio’s mouth is dry, but for an instant she is flooded with courage. She gathers herself up and turns to face Miss Hinata straight on.

“If you do, I can protect you,” she says. “The winters are hard, but I’ll keep you warm, and in the summers I’ll give you shade. When it storms, I’ll take you to the shelter under the house. You’ll have what you need to eat and drink, and sew, and write to your family. I’ll do my work for you. I’ll share what I have, and teach you what you want to learn.” She pauses in thought. “And you’ll see the best sunsets anyone’s ever seen. And more stars than you ever saw at home.”

Her eyes drop, and she can’t bring them back up. She takes off her hat and scratches at her head. Then she uses it to gesture vaguely at the back wall of the house.

“I can add a room onto the back,” she murmurs, “For the children. I know there are orphanages back east. It might not be exactly what you saw for yourself, but that’s what I can do for you.”

Shouyou’s eyes go wide and glassy.

“You—You would—”

Tears run from her eyes.

“Are you trying to make me cry?” she shrieks.

“No.” Tobio is quite unsettled by its happening twice now in a few short days.

Shouyou pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and scrubs her face. She takes a steady breath and folds the handkerchief away, then raises her eyes again.

“Then why am I here? If you are going to do all of that, what is it you want from me?”

Tobio frowns a little, then busies herself putting her hat back on and studying the floorboards.

“I wrote it in the ad,” she says.

Shouyou puts her hands on her hips. She looks hard at her. Tobio knows if she looks away now, she’ll have lost.

“I know you want more than cooking and sewing,” she says. “I do intend to be the best cook and seamstress you could have, but…”

Shouyou’s eyes burn like coals. Tobio feels a shiver crawl down her spine.

“I think you are lonely, out here on your claim. You need a companion, to share your lot with. Someone to add to your happiness, and to be here when times are hard.” Shouyou nods, to herself and to Tobio. “I will be that companion. I’d like to.”

Tobio is now completely lost for what to say. They seem to understand each other so well, for not knowing each other at all. It makes no sense. She looks away, then turns herself from Shouyou and stands looking out the door, as she says:

“The preacher should be in tomorrow. We’ll go to town after we’ve gotten ready.”

“That suits me,” says Shouyou. “And I could make up a pie in the morning, to eat when we come back.”

Tobio is pulled in again, turning her head to look at her.

“How does that sound?” She’s smiling.

“Suits me fine,” Tobio says.

After the pie, she’ll walk her to the lake. It’s prettier in June, but it’s certainly no shame now, and as Shouyou has liked everything else, Tobio’s allowing herself to be hopeful.

“I’ll start on some supper.”

She is tying on an apron and moving to the pantry.

“You must have work to do now that you’re back. I’ll call when it’s ready, and afterwards I’ll help you. I said I wanted to learn everything, and I won’t let you off from teaching me.”

Tobio considers her, and Shouyou’s eyes harden as she is sized up.

“You’d better be up to it,” Tobio says.

“Of course I am! I will be.”

With that, she marches into the pantry. Tobio keeps her smile back until she steps outside.


End file.
